This invention relates generally to marine inboard engines, and specifically to devices and methods for draining the oil from a marine inboard engine.
Draining the oil from a marine inboard engine has always been a difficult task. In most vessels, an inboard engine is located below decks in an engine compartment barely larger than the engine itself. Draining the oil from an inboard engine requires the difficult tasks of maneuvering in very cramped quarters to get beneath the engine, maneuvering a receptacle below the oil pan plug, removing the plug to drain the oil and replacing the plug thereafter, and removing the waste oil receptacle from beneath the engine and out of the engine compartment.
Several attempts have been made to devise a way to drain the oil from an inboard marine engine via permanent piping running from the oil pan. Most of these prior art attempts have required the use of expensive and maintenance-intensive pumps or other mechanical means with which to pump the drained oil out of the hold of the vessel.
There is therefore a need for a device and a method for draining the oil from a marine inboard engine without having to carry it out or pump it out.